EDITORIAL: Administrative bloat taking over at UConn

Published
12:00 am EST, Monday, December 3, 2012

U.S. universities have been hiring administrators 10 times faster than faculty members, according to the U.S. Department of Education. That lopsided administrative growth may be one of the reasons the University of Connecticut does not have enough teachers for students to take all required courses to graduate within in four years.

And, universities' top-heavy administrations are driving up the cost of a college education.

UConn's administrative bloat is conspicuous enough to have been singled out in a recent Bloomberg News report.

The university, the news service noted, "has a $312,000-a-year provost and 13 vice, deputy and associate vice provosts, including one overseeing 'engagement' who makes almost $275,000 a year. The university has seven vice presidents and 13 deans. President Susan Herbst, who receives a $500,000 salary, has a $199,000 chief of staff."

Add to that the campus police chief, who retired last year. He was paid $256,000, more than New York City's police chief. His deputy at UConn, also now retired, was paid $202,000.

The overpaid cops may be gone, but Herbst has created a new administrative post, vice president of communications. She has hired someone from the University of Iowa to fill it at a salary of $227,500.

"How aggressively we communicate about ourselves and tell our story as an institution is one of the essential components of our success as a top public university," Herbst said in a press release. Apparently, creating the image that UConn is a top public university means that you have to pay top dollar to spread that message, particularly for a "top" school ranked 63rd among national universities by U.S. News and World Reports.

If UConn's salaries and administrative structure sound similar to those of a Fortune 500 corporation, it is because it uses the same system in setting salaries that requires it to be competitive with peer institutions. It is a self-perpetuating cycle of ever higher pay.

Tuition and fees at UConn have gone up 6 percent this year and will continue to go up by as much as 6.8 percent annually through 2016. The increases, Herbst argued, are needed to hire more faculty; and, she might have added, to support all of her very well paid administrators.